Occasionally in the life of a pastor (or priest for my RCC friends) you come across a situation that is so far beyond what you’ve been taught to deal with in seminary or pastor’s conferences.  Your heart and soul twists and turns as you think about how you will deal with it, and how in the world the situation will be seen in the promise we share with everyone else….

“We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose. ²⁹ Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the first among many believers. ³⁰ And so those whom God set apart, he called; and those he called, he put right with himself, and he shared his glory with them.”
Romans 8:28-30 (TEV) 

The situations we find ourselves in have nothing glorious, nothing good it seems, and we are hard pressed to not consider the situation “unredeemable”.

Yet we have a God, who in that passage promises redemption, for H has called us to Him, He has set us apart – and He will make it right.  We have the challenge of trusting Him in that, to rest assured that He is God, and that He can do what we consider impossible, including redeeming that which seems unredeemable.  Forgiving and making right that which seems to dark, too evil, and causes to much despair.

He has promised to make it right, to make it good.  ( I can’t but help hear that as “guuuuuuddd’ as in Jim Carrey and Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty”

So it figures, as I face a situation that isn’t completely unredeemable, but still weighs heavily on my mind… at the end of my devotions I come across this:

218      Get rid of that human prudence which makes you so very cautious, so—sorry to be so blunt!—cowardly. Let us not be narrow-minded. Let us not be infantile men or women, who are nearsighted and lack a supernatural breadth of vision…! Could we be working for ourselves? Of course not! Well then, let us say quite fearlessly: Dearest Jesus, we are working for you, and… are you going to deny us the material means we need? You know full well how worthless we are; still, I would not treat a servant working for me in that way… Therefore, we hope and are sure you will give us all we need to be able to serve you. (1)

And He will, He has promised.  The situation will be resolved – by Him, not by us, though perhaps through us.  THough there are times where we have to cry, “Lord, I believe, but help me in my unbelief!”

We have to remember – we’ve asked – “Lord have mercy” – now let us act trusting He has!

(1)  Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 944-951). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.